Africana55 Radio 
English
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scottish Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sudanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and the musical’s lead producer Jeffrey Seller have announced they are cancelling a planned run of shows at Washington DC’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts over the Trump administration’s takeover of the institution.
Soon after returning to the Oval Office, Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s leadership and put MAGA loyalist Richard Grenell in charge of the Kennedy Center.
Miranda’s hit musical about Alexander Hamilton and the birth of American democracy, which is scheduled to tour throughout 2026, had been expected to appear at the venue from March 3 to April 26 next year.
In an interview with the New York Times, Miranda said: “This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it.
“The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We’re just not going to be part of it.”
Seller added: ““It became untenable for us to participate in an organization that had become so deeply politicized. The Kennedy Center is for all of us, and it pains me deeply that they took it over and changed that. They said it’s not for all of us. It’s just for Donald Trump and his crowd. So we made a decision we can’t do it.”
Hamilton had been expected to play a significant part in the Kennedy Center’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Miranda and Seller have said they hope to find a new venue in the Washington DC area.
Since President Trump moved to take control of the Kennedy Center, ticket sales have reportedly halved.
Along with Hamilton, a number of other productions have withdrawn from the venue. Actress and comedian Issa Rae was the first major artist to announce that she was canceling her show there.
Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny also pulled out of her scheduled appearance.
The Kennedy Center was first conceived in the late 1950s, during the administration of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, who backed a bill from the Democratic-led Congress calling for a “National Culture Center.”
In the early 1960s, Democrat President John F. Kennedy launched a fundraising initiative, and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed into law a 1964 bill renaming the project the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Kennedy had been assassinated the year before.
Construction began in 1965 and the center formally opened six years later, with a premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass.